--

‘Invisible Women’ for Hillary

“I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.” I have thought of this quote from Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man often during this election season.

As an African American woman who supports Hillary Clinton, I regularly feel invisible. The media, the pundits, the pollsters and the other candidates refuse to see me.

Women (who make up over 60% of registered voters) and minorities are disregarded as if we are unimportant to the candidates’ platforms or the outcome of the race.

Though Hillary has earned millions more votes than either Bernie or Donald, Hillary’s supporters, particularly female voters, are often deemed irrelevant in the media. And when we try to raise our voices, we are mocked, trolled, and verbally assaulted so persistently that the effort becomes daunting.

Between working, learning, raising families, caregiving, bettering our communities, and engaging in the real world around us, we don’t have the time or the patience to waste precious energy on fighting incessant harassment as the cost of participation.

Our presence on Election Day will be visible and potent. As it has been in the voting booth for all of 2016.

Thankfully we are not invisible to the candidate who by all objective measures will be our next President. She knows who we are and she knows our dedication and determination. She relies on it. We are ready for her. And we will be there for her in large numbers in November.

A native of Dallas, Texas, Ginger McKnight-Chavers is a graduate of Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and Harvard Law School. She was a Kathryn Gurfein Writing Fellow at Sarah Lawrence College, and her debut novel, In the Heart of Texas, will be released in Fall 2016 by She Writes Press.